Time went on, sirs; I came home unexpectedly from the country, and after dinner the child started crying in a peevish way, as the servant-girl was annoying it on purpose to make it so behave; for the man was in the house— I learnt it all later. So I bade my wife go and give the child her breast, to stop its howling. At first she refused, as though delighted to see me home again after so long; but when I began to be angry and bade her go, — Yes, so that you, she said, may have a try here at the little maid. Once before, too, when you were drunk, you pulled her about. At that I laughed, while she got up, went out of the room, and closed the door, feigning to make fun, and she took the key away with her. I, without giving a thought to the matter, or having any suspicion, went to sleep in all content after my return from the country. Towards daytime she came and opened the door. I asked why the doors made a noise in the night; she told me that the child’s lamp had gone out, and she had lit it again at our neighbor’s. I was silent and believed it was so. But it struck me, sirs, that she had powdered her face, Athenian women used white lead to give an artificial delicacy to their complexion; cf. Aristoph. Eccl. 878, 929 . though her brother had died not thirty days before; even so, however, I made no remark on the fact, but left the house in silence. After this, sirs, an interval occurred in which I was left quite unaware of my own injuries; I was then accosted by a certain old female, who was secretly sent by a woman with whom that man was having an intrigue, as I heard later. This woman was angry with him and felt herself wronged, because he no longer visited her so regularly, and she was keeping a watch on him until she should discover what was the cause.